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Demand and Consent – What Does THIS Dog Want? – Video
Motivation starts with understanding what our learner wants. With dogs, we are often simply observing their behavior choices, body language and patterns.
In this clip, Kelsey Weber CPDT-KA shares about a dog???? named Pearl that she is working with for two main goals: discovering Pearl’s motivation and teaching a solid stay ✋????.
Kelsey’s video shows Pearl being very clear about “demanding” a ????. Kelsey then leads us through observing the dog’s body language when requesting and avoiding attention.
Watch the video, then let’s discuss.
How can we shape demand behaviors into behaviors that we enjoy using a dog’s motivation preferences?
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6 Replies
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Bumping this up so ya’ll can take a ???? and jump into the discussion.
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@programdev what great conversation these two are having in this video. Thanks so much for sharing it!
I look at this dogs behavior as trying to figure out what will earn the cookie. “Oh, look, when I sit politely cookies come my way” and “ah, maybe if I do this (lying down) I’ll get some cookies”. This is where we capture those behaviors and increase the likelihood that they’ll occur more frequently and she did a lovely job of doing that very thing.
What stood out to all of you on this video?
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Replying to Amy McPhail
Yes, it’s great to see even in this tiny video the progress she is making in terms of giving more of her (Pearl’s) attention to what Kelsey has ‘on offer’, – treats and petting- I like that everything Kelsey does – or DOESN’t do- is based on whatever signals she is getting from Pearl, and she isn’t trying to,with good intention though it might be, ‘raise the bar’ on her; there are definitely times when that might be good to do with a dog like P. (only when she’s is at a whole other level, though) but it’s obvious that letting P do the deciding about what ‘works’ for her is the whole point, and I really like Kelsey’s vibe here, “I’ll give you what you want- if and when you ‘want’ it, it’s all good- and isn’t taking it on as any big deal when the pup reverts to her own comfort level- or rather retreats back to it. Thanks,Kelsey, for putting this out for us.
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@beaglemania i couldn’t have said it better!! I love that you picked up on the fact that Pearl was always “in the drivers seat”. Giving our learners agency, allowing them to always have the opportunity to “opt out” and honoring that should always be first and foremost!
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Good observations, @BeagleMania ! Yes, Kelsey does a great job here, with giving Pearl the freedom to request her rewards. Training with video is really helpful so we can catch these little moments of insight for ourselves and others.
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Keeping the pressure off our dogs, in the way that Kelsey so clearly does in this video, allows the individual dog to show us what they want, instead of offering behaviors they think we want (throwing previously learned behaviors), which I have found can get in the way of them learning through shaping as well.
I’ve mentioned my dear Moon Dog’s “Heavy Chin” behavior, which we utilized extensively in our Therapy Dog work. It started as an offered, attention-seeking behavior. Interestingly, similarly to “demand barking”, putting it on cue seemed to lessen her need to so persistently (pestiferously even) use it to get attention.
Thank you for the reminder about how important having a video to review is @beaglemania! So much can go in even a short session that we might miss with our attention on what we think we should be watching, unable to see the whole picture because of our tight focus.
I’d be interested in hearing how other folks have watched for consent and request behaviors in video reviews or when watching other people working with dogs!
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